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Wills Factory Imperial Park, Hartcliffe Way, Bristol The prize-winning complex at Imperial Park was designed by YRM in collaboration with SOM of Chicago. It was built as the Wills headquarters as well as a factory and was the result of careful consultation with the client. It originally comprised an enormous factory with 180,000 square foot column-free production area, supported by dramatic roof trusses. Alongside this, and once linked by an underground passage, is the headquarters building, which sat astride a purpose-made lake. Both buildings featured Cor-Ten steel, with the factory predominantly clad in pre-cast concrete. The building was inspired by the clear structural expression seen in the work of Mies van de Rohe. It is worth noting that the plan of the factory deviated from the model of its inspiration in its irregular, and arguably more functional, plan form. The factory has clear parallels in terms of quality and authorship with the already Grade II* listed Boots factory at Beeston, Nottinghamshire. The factory building was demolished in 1997/98 following its failure to achieve Grade II* listed status and prior to it being eligible for Grade II listed status in 2001. The listing of the office building (Grade II) has saved it from total demolition but little else. The office building was recently granted retrospective planning permission for the asbestos removal carried out with malicious insensitivity in 2001. The windows were removed, along with the Cor-Ten exterior cladding, leaving a steel frame entirely exposed to the elements. A planning application for its demolition was refused in August 2003 and the building and its surrounding land has recently changed ownership. The office building, stripped of its factory, its landscaping and its cladding sits as an abstract piece of sculpture in a field and little more. The building desperately requires an enlightened plan from a developer with a vision for transforming the surrounding area into a sensitive office and retail warehousing complex to save it from the otherwise inevitable claws of the bulldozers. Tim Pitman
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